I won't mince words. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "regulatory reform" that includes "repeal, replacement, or modification" of safeguards is anything but reform. It is a frontal assault on decades of basic protections that ensure wildlife and habitat have the clean air and healthy waters they need to survive and thrive.

Rolling back basic environmental protections would be devastating for wildlife and the outdoors. We can't afford more toxic mercury in our air and water that will compromise loons' ability to thrive, more paved over wetlands that destroy crucial aquatic habitats, or unchecked climate pollution driving higher temperatures that fuel more devastating forest fires and tick infestations in moose. Almost five decades worth of bi-partisan protections supported by Republican and Democratic administrations, based on laws passed overwhelmingly in Congress, are at risk.

Without strong protections for clean air and clean water and a safer climate, the rivers, lakes, streams, mountains, coasts, plains and climate that we and wildlife depend on will suffer. The Environmental Protection Agency intends to bow to industry pressure and rollback or remove many of these protections.

Under both Republican and Democratic Presidents, protective rules were crafted—based on sound science and well vetted, transparent processes—to keep wildlife like loons and thousands of others safe from pollution and habitat degradation.

Virtually all evidence suggests that the benefits of these protections outweigh the costs, often vastly. Moreover, the benefits accrue broadly to the public, keeping people healthier, protecting wildlife and enabling everyone to better enjoy our abundant natural resources.